Health & Wellness

Diabetes, stroke, obesity, lower back pain, hemmorhoids and sciatica -- all diseases usually found in older people -- are striking children and young adults at greater rates. Many people have the idea that they can enjoy life in their younger years, eat and drink whatever they want, do whatever they like, and not have to worry about diseases or illnesses until they are much older. Unfortunately, this mindset coupled with a plethora of toxic foodstuffs available 24 hours a day and increasingly sedentary lifestyles has led to a world full of youngsters living in elderly bodies.

When it comes to aging, is our society so far removed from what is truly healthy that we confuse what would be considered normal with what is common? Is a sick population, of both the young and the old, our destiny? On this episode of The Health and Wellness Show we'll explore this phenomenon and its causes as well as dietary and lifestyle changes to keep your innards young and supple for as long as possible.

And don't forget that pets age too. Stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment where the topic will be caring for seniors of the furry persuasion.

The US surgeon general has raised alarm over the vulnerability of young people to the negative health effects of e-cigarettes in the fight against nicotine addiction. A new report challenges the view that vaping is less dangerous than smoking.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the nation's top doctor, released a report Thursday — 'E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults' — that recommended e-cigarettes be treated like other forms of tobacco smoking, especially with regards to use among young people.

"We know a great deal about what works to effectively prevent tobacco use among young people," the new report said. "Now we must apply these strategies to e-cigarettes."

Gary Null, author of Death By Medicine, says we are. He argues that little evidence exists to support the notion that vaccines actually work to protect us from disease.

Take the flu vaccine. Null writes that a "study has yet to be undertaken that evaluates the long-term progress of both fully vaccinated and unvaccinated children of comparable biochemistries, ages, and lifestyles." The government won't even report on how many vaccinated kids got the flu. Even so, there is evidence that the vaccine is not very effective, as we have reported previously. There is also evidence that supplemental vitamin D is at least as effective as the vaccine in preventing the flu.

Real scientists acknowledge that these issues are complex. For example, Null notes that many biological factors influence immunity, such as quality of the diet, levels of vitamins A and C (as well as D), exercise, stress management, and exposure to environmental toxins. Why are we suddenly so immune-compromised that we have to be vaccinated for everything under the sun?

Comment: Read more articles from Gary Null and why we should be skeptical about vaccines:

A medical science that refuses to ask new questions and settles upon disputed beliefs to sustain an industry's financial portfolio is Scientism, a quasi-faith-based creed now institutionalized to promulgate repressive laws. These laws then advance Scientism's authority. Unfortunately, today this accurately represents the sad state of vaccine research and vaccination policy. Modern vaccine science, and conventional medicine in general, has morphed into a new fascism, a rigid doctrine that has sacrificed the foundations of scientific integrity on the altar of institutional greed, privilege and profit.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has suggested blocking a substance commonly used for dry cleaning due to its health risks. It is the first of 10 chemicals used in processes such as food production and construction that the agency may prohibit.

EPA is proposing to ban "certain uses of the toxic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) due to health risks when used as a degreaser and a spot removal agent in dry cleaning." Trichloroethylene is a known carcinogen and one of 10 chemicals the agency has said it will review for human and environmental safety to comply with a federal chemical-reform law passed earlier this year.

"For the first time in a generation, we are able to restrict chemicals already in commerce that pose risks to public health and the environment," Jim Jones, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement. "Once finalized, today's action will help protect consumers and workers from cancer and other serious health risks when they are exposed to aerosol degreasing, and when dry cleaners use spotting agents."

The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in June. The law requires the EPA to review existing chemicals for toxicity and to assess whether they "present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment," a mandate the agency was not previously afforded unless it had strong proof that a risk existed.

As the Lautenberg Act's lead sponsor Senator Tom Udall told Ensia by email, "Most Americans believe that if they can buy a product at the grocery store or the hardware store, the government has tested it and determined that it's safe. But that hasn't been true. There has been no cop on the beat testing chemicals to make sure they're safe — even the ones in your home."

TSCA regulates chemicals used commercially in the United States. That said, TSCA does not regulate pesticides, chemicals used in cosmetics and personal care products, food, food packaging, or pharmaceuticals. Some chemicals, however, have multiple uses and so may be regulated concurrently by TSCA and other federal laws. For example, TSCA regulates the plastics ingredient bisphenol A when it's used as a receipt paper coating, but the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act regulates BPA when it's used in food packaging.

Opioid exposure is strongly correlated with reduced likelihood of healing in patients with chronic wounds.

A recent George Washington Study looked at opioid treatment and the rate of healing in chronic wounds. It turns out that chronic wound patients who never receive opioids actually heal up faster than those who receive the drugs according to researcher Victoria Shanmugam, M.D. Chronic wounds are those that have failed to heal after three months of appropriate wound care, a problem that affects a whopping 6.5 million Americans. Not only is it an excruciating problem to have but it cuts mortality rates. Shanmugam is striving for more research to see what it is about opioid prescriptions that prevents healing.

The study called "Relationship between Opioid Treatment and Rate of Healing in Chronic Wounds," published in Wound Repair and Regeneration, the data suggests a that opioid exposure is strongly correlated with reduced likelihood of healing in patients with chronic wounds. Opioid dose was found to be significantly associated with total wound surface area of the 450 subjects enrolled in the WE-HEAL biorepository.

Comment: In addition to the risks of addiction and overdose, opioids have many serious side effects including hormonal changes, constipation, decreased immune response, fracture risks, liver and kidney risks, cardiopulmonary, pulmonary and congestive heart problems, sleep apnea, mental problems and even death in those who combine them with other drugs. What's worse is that they can even make pain worse.

The life expectancy of Americans decreased in 2015, compared to 2014 - the first drop in over two decades. The newly-released report also shows mortality rates were up for most of the 10 leading causes of death.

The data released by the National Center for Health Statistics on Thursday shows that life expectancy in the United States dropped last year for the first time since 1993.

Americans are now expected to live an average of 78.8 years, a figure that represents a one-tenth of one year drop since 2014. Women now have a life expectancy of 81.2 years, while men are expected to live to an average of 76.3 years.

Comment: Considering the appalling state of healthcare in the US, it is unsurprising that life expectancy is trending downward. Americans spend more on healthcare than any other developed nation, yet health outcomes are much worse.

Women with an optimistic outlook on life may live longer, a new study finds.
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Optimistic women in the study were less likely to die from five major causes of death over an eight-year period than women who were less optimistic, according to the study.

And although optimism has been linked in earlier studies to healthy behaviors such as eating a healthy diet and getting more exercise, the researchers noted that these behaviors only partially explained the link to a longer life.

In other words, it's possible that optimism directly impacts our biological systems, Eric Kim, a research fellow in social behavioral sciences at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Cancer cases have increased by more than 30 percent in the last decade and half of all cases globally are ending up in deaths according to a new report from the Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration published online by JAMA Oncology. Moreover, the overall contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults is below 3 percent.

Cancers figure among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Between 2005 and 2015, cancer cases increased by 33 percent and the number of new cases is expected to rise by about 70% over the next just two decades under the current global disease promoting paradigm.

Cancer is part of the conglomerate of preventable disease which makes up approximately 80% percent of the burden of illness and 90% of all healthcare costs.